God catches you

I remember when I was a kid and I would go to my Grandma Eissens house and she had a plaque with “Footprints” on it. When I was little, I completely didn’t get it. I was like “why in the world was God carrying a guy on a beach? Were they surfing together?”

Whenever I see a similar plaque or card like it, be it in a store or in someone’s home, I remember that my Grandma had it. It hung on a small wall in her trailer, by her favorite LazyBoy armchair.

I wish I had that plaque of hers. I don’t have that, but I do have a Bible she owned. It’s a HUGE guideposts parallel Bible, with 4 versions of the Bible that you can look over at once. That Bible has been a great source of comfort, to think I am reading the same Bible, the same verses, that my Grandma probably read.

My mom was her daughter, and my mom is buried next to her in a small cemetery in Thomson, Illinois. They will have matching gravetones, pink, with her name, date of birth and death, and “Mother of Jessica, Julie, John & Jeff” written on the back. It’s been surreal and difficult to make lots of adult decisions all at once (I will have driven back to Illinois from Kansas 3 times since June 11th to handle family business), but God has given little encouragements along the way. Cards from people I haven’t talked to in years, nice conversations with friends that I’ve missed, and flowers from friends and family. I have also loved being more involved with my siblings and seeing them more often - I let it go too long between visits.

So, among all the unexpected pain and grief good things have been happening. We’re plugging forward on buying a house (we made another offer this week, and we’re expecting a counter offer from the seller), but no offers on our house yet. Right now, the adoption paperwork is on hold. We just don’t have the time with all the additional paperwork and responsibilities after my mom’s death. Her passing away was unexpected - she passed away in her sleep from a previously unknown heart condition.

Posts may be scattered and infrequent for a while, but hopefully in August we will have a new house and can get moving forward on adoption again.

Something that was so sweet, we found a card among mom’s belongings in her room. We had just begun telling her that we were adopting. We opened the card, and it played “Baby, Baby” by Amy Grant, and it was signed “Love, Grandma Gloria.” That has been the hardest thing for me and my husband, too, that she was looking forward to being a Grandma and it didn’t happen before she passed away. That has been the roughest on us.

Posted by: DramaQueen | 07-12-2007 | 08:07 PM
Posted in: God's Faithfulness | God's Lessons